Joost | PADI Staff Instructor
Joost worked at Porto Mari Dive Center from 2020 to 2024 and has since returned to the Netherlands with his family. He looks back with pride on his role in training dozens of new dive professionals. As an honorary member of Porto Mari Dive Center, he leads this Hall of Fame.
Hi! My name is Joost. I am from Tilburg and I am the only face here that is no longer actively involved in the operation. From 2019 to 2024, I lived and worked on Curaçao, spending the last three and a half years with great pleasure at Porto Mari Sports.
During that period, I experienced a remarkable personal and professional development. I progressed from Open Water diver to IDC Staff Instructor (the PADI equivalent of SSI Assistant Instructor Trainer). At the same time, I became the father of twins — an unforgettable time full of new challenges, major changes, and beautiful moments.
With pride, I was able to train a dozen divemasters and an assistant instructor at Porto Mari Sports. I also dived as often as possible myself: from introductory dives and Open Water courses at Porto Mari, to deep wreck dives, lionfish hunting, underwater photography, relaxed coral nursery dives, and fast drift dives by boat at Oostpunt. These were years of intensive learning, teaching, and above all, enjoying everything the underwater world has to offer.
Ultimately, family life brought us back to the Netherlands, so I did not experience the transition to SSI. Back in the Netherlands, I worked for another year at Duikcentrum De Beldert as a sales associate. Although I learned a lot, I found — perhaps a bit spoiled by Curaçao — that cold water diving was not quite to my taste.
Currently, I am following a dual education program and working part-time as a teacher-in-training, with the goal of obtaining my teaching qualification as a physical education teacher. A direction that, just like being a dive instructor, suits me perfectly.
Who knows, our paths may cross again in the future — in the Netherlands, or once more on Curaçao.